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Africa North
Libyan Islamist says US strike missed al-Qaida-linked leader
2015-06-16
[Ynet] The US military says it launched weekend Arclight airstrikes targeting and likely killing an al-Qaeda-linked bully boy leader in eastern Libya charged with leading the attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 that killed at least 35 hostages, including three Americans.

An Islamist with ties to Libyan bully boys, however, said the Arclight airstrikes missed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, instead killing four members of a Libyan extremist group the US has linked to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

US officials said they are still assessing the results of the Saturday strike, but Pentagon front man Col. Steve Warren said the military believes the strike was successful and hit the target. Neither US officials nor the Libyan government provided proof of Belmokhtar's death, which likely requires a DNA test or an announcement by Belmokhtar's group that he was killed.
Rudaw adds:
But this isn't the first time authorities have claimed to have killed Belmokhtar, a hard boy believed to be in his 40s who reportedly lost his eye in combat and fought in Afghanistan. He was one of a number of Islamist fighters who have battled Algeria's government since the 1990s, later joining al-Qaeda.

Intelligence officials say Belmokhtar essentially built a bridge between AQIM and the underworld, creating a system where various blends of outlaws now support each other and enroll local youth. He's been linked to terror attacks and the lucrative kidnapping of foreigners in the region.

The US filed terrorism charges in 2013 against Belmokhtar in connection with the Algeria attack. Officials have said they believe he remained a threat to US and Western interests. Belmokhtar had just split off from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to start his own franchise.

The Libyan government in a statement Sunday said that the strike targeting Belmokhtar came after consultation with the US so that America could take action against a terror leader there.

One government official in Libya said an Arclight airstrike in the northeastern coastal city of Ajdabiya hit a group of Islamic hard boyz also believed linked to al-Qaeda and that it killed five and maimed more. He said the group that was maimed later fought the Libyan military that guarded the hospital there, leading to an hourslong battle. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to news hounds. The official couldn't confirm that was the same strike that killed Belmokhtar.

The Islamist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals in restive Libya, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named early Monday that Belmokhtar wasn't at the site of the US Arclight airstrike. He said the strike killed four Ansar Shariah members in Ajdabiya, some 850 kilometers east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
American officials have linked Ansar Shariah to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi.
Posted by:trailing wife

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